Night vision goggles, as well as other optical devices, often need to be fixed or held onto test equipment to conduct tests and make appropriate adjustments. Night vision goggles, which are adapted for use by the military, are field tested on a device known as a Special Purpose Test Set. The Special Purpose Test Set is a portable test set, and is used in the field to check resolution, collimation and other optical parameters of the night vision goggle.
As a result of the manufacture of various generations of night vision goggles as well as different manufacturers thereof, the Special Purpose Test Set cannot conveniently grasp or hold all currently available models of night vision goggles. The Test Set has a pair of receptacles into which the binocular night vision goggles are inserted for testing, and since the various types of night vision goggles are dimensionally different, the receptacles require bushing adapters to accept the various goggles.
The adapters typically comprise bushings that fit around the inserted portion of the night vision goggles and have an outside diameter the same as the inside diameter of the Test Set receptacles. Due to the various versions of night vision goggles, a different bushing is required to adapt each goggle version to the Test Set. All the bushings must be carried along with the Test Set to be able to test any of the various pairs of night vision goggles that are currently available. Therefore, it is necessary to either carry all the bushings in bags which are carried with the Test Set equipment, or tether each bushing to the receptacles in order to make them readily available. The bags and the individual bushings are easy to lose, while the use of tethers allows the bushings to become easily entangled and therefore adds undesireable clutter to the Test Set. Whichever method is chosen to store the bushings, confusion and loss of parts frequently occur. Thus, a need has arisen for a universal adapter to grasp all versions of night vision goggles to allow testing on the Special Purpose Test Set, and to eliminate the requirement of bushing adapters.